What Are Harvey Weinstein's Potential Oscar Contenders?

Harvey Weinstein presented trailers from his company's upcoming slate of films at Cannes today: so what might we be talking about when Oscar season finally rolls around? Now, mind you, this should all be taken with a grain of salt. After all, early footage can so often be fickle. Also, Weinstein talked up Grace of Monacolast year, and look what happened there.

Not all the films Weinstein put on display were Oscar hopefuls. Paddington is family fare; The Giver is a stab at the YA demo. Still, based on reactions we can make really early guesses as to what films will be running the big race.

Big Eyes

The Tim Burton biopic of painter Margaret Keane has always been on the Oscar radar, and coming out of the Weinstein presentation, Kyle Buchanan of Vulture called it "otherwise known as Please Give Amy Adams Her Damn Academy Award Already." Jada Yuan of the same publication noted on Twitter that the movie looked more Spike Jonze than Tim Burton "but still fantastic." Though Variety's Ramin Setoodeh thought some elements of the trailer didn't "look promising," the gab around Adams is hard to dispute. Pete Hammond of Deadline was completely positive: "I have high hopes for this one based on the footage seen and so obviously does Weinstein, at least considering the release date."

Macbeth

Double double...oh you know how it goes. Yuan wrote on Twitter that the Fassbender-Cotillard adaptation of Shakespeare's Scottish play was "clearly" the Oscar tentpole for Weinstein, and Setoodeh said that Fassbender "gave the best trailer performance of the bunch."

Suite Francaise

Though this WWII tale about a villager that falls in love with a German soldier made a "wan impression" on Buchanan, Setoodeh voted to add lead Michelle Williams to the list of women contending for best actress next year.

The Imitation Game

Reaction to the footage shown for this Benedict Cumberbatch biopic of Alan Turing—the famous British mathematician persecuted for being gay—seemed neither here nor there, but considering the prestige of this project no one seems to be ignoring it completely.

St. Vincent

Pete Hammond billed the Bill Murray movie—which Yuan pegged as "basically About a Boy"—as an "award hopeful," but this one seems like more of a long shot. Buchanan made a Bad Santa allusion, which doesn't scream Oscar.